Christmas 2020

All things Christmas 2020:

Merry Christmas 2020. We were at the park for the night of the tree lighting. Usually there is a big festival and the kids line up for Santa after he lights the tree. This year, there were just movies in the park and they lit the tree between movies. At least we could take as many pictures as we wanted in front of the tree. 

Some nice arts and crafts. He put the foam stickers together by himself. 

Christmas Lights!

I put lights up. Honestly, other years have been better. We have bigger plans for next year. 

The front porch decorations are new and make a nice scene. 

Year of the drive throughs. Like Halloween, we found a drive through for Christmas. It was very popular this year had the park was full of lights. 

Christmas in Florida. The holiday shark. Of course there were also light displays of palm trees, alligators, and flamingos. 

Singing light bulbs. 

Also, the park had a local broadcast of modern Christmas music to listen to.

Christmas confections. After taking some time off, Ethan is becoming more independent so we can do things like cook without having to watch him constantly.

I rolled out lots of Christmas sugar cookies instead of gingerbread this year. I wasn't too aggressive trying to make lots of gingerbread cookies to give away to the extended family. It wasn't stressful. I got the baking done and Ethan likes the cookies. We never got around to decorating them but that's Ok. We made progress by decorating the house and making cookies again. Christmas is getting back to normal. 

How about this shot for presentation? Yeah, not the best photo. I only have so much time for shots. At least you get the idea. This was version three of the cake. The other two were test cakes. After Christmas, I ended up destroying the already cut up test cakes and turned them into cake pops. 

We can't bake for Christmas without gingerbread. This is homemade all the way, not from a kit. My contribution was playing with Ethan during the construction of the house, giving the baker room to work.

Christmas Day:

Before the rest of the family woke up, I made waffles. Then I sat down to relax and drink a cup of hot tea. About a minute after I sat down to relax, I heard you-know-who wake up. 

Christmas morning with holiday music and the yule log burning on TV. South Florida's version of a fireplace. 

Everyone is excited for presents. 

Of course he got clothes, but look at all those toys behind him.

We did a gift swap and I got the cake pop cook book. The baker in the house makes the cakes, and I make the cake pops. 

Finally, we took advantage of the nice decorations and had some family photos. Here is one of my test shots. Yes, Toby and I are in matching shirts.